Introduction

Just like last year, in 2016 Samsung brings out not just one, but two new flagship-phones: the flat-screened Galaxy S7 and the curved S7 edge, which has a bigger screen this time around.

The two are practically identical when you look under the hood: equipped with the same processor and same camera, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are clearly Samsung’s fastest, best phones to date.

So which one should you get: the S7 or S7 Edge? Since both are nearly identical, that will depend on what size you prefer: the bigger Galaxy S7 Edge or the more compact Galaxy S7, but there are also few questions begging to be answered. First, is the Edge UX functionality that is only present on the S7 Edge a big advantage? And what about battery life, does the larger battery cell on the S7 Edge result in better actual battery life? We take a look at all this and other nuances to help you make the right choice between Samsung’s two new phones.

Design and size difference

Size will be one of two key decisive factors: luckily, the Galaxy S7 Edge is very compact for its screen size and not all that much larger than the S7.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge feature almost the same design styling as last year’s S6 and S6 Edge, so much so that they would look identical to the untrained eye. Look closer, and you’d see some slight but worthy improvements: the larger, more flush home button; the curves towards the edges on the back of the phone that make it a more comfortable fit in hand; the slight change in positioning of the front camera.

Now, all of these changes are on both the S7 and S7 Edge, but what about the differences? Of course, the S7 edge has a ‘dual-edge’ display, but that’s about it in terms of design style.

The one key differentiating factor for buyers trying to choose between these two, though, is clearly size: the 5.5” S7 Edge is bigger than its 5.1” S7 sibling. Both are practically equally thick at almost 8mm, but the S7 Edge is wider and taller (5.94” height vs 5.61”, and 2.86” width vs 2.74”).

Does this mean that those who value compactness should automatically discard the 5.5” Galaxy S7 Edge? We’d say ‘no’ to that: the S7 Edge fits quite comfortably in the hand for its size and Samsung has made it much smaller than, say, the 5.5” iPhone 6s Plus. If you have doubts about which size is right for you, you can use our awesome size comparison tool as well.

It’s also worth mentioning that the S7 and S7 Edge will be available in black and gold in the United States, while the white version of the phones will not be initially available stateside. The S7 Edge also has an exclusive silver color version.

Finally, both phones also feature the quite useful water and dust resistance. They come certified with IP68 rating, meaning that they can survive submersion in up to 5 feet deep fresh water (salty ocean or sea water will damage them, though) for as long as 30 minutes. Samsung won’t recommend you use them for underwater photography, though, but rather says that they should survive accidental spills or drops in water.

Display

Equally great-looking screens, just make sure to switch them to Basic display mode for realistic colors.

Samsung is a pioneer in terms of displays, known for its bright and vivid, rich color AMOLED screens. The new S7 and S7 Edge get the latest and most refined Super AMOLED screens to date: a 5.1” flat one on the S7 and a 5.5” curved one on the S7 Edge.

The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.

The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.

I agree 100%. I own Sharp Aquos Crystal and I love it dearly. While I believe Galaxy S7 Edge is not a perfect phone. In my opinion, it's very close to it. I will likely be going to the store to pick one up today.

but Sony's angular edges are very beautiful. And this edges attract patrons.
But the main problem with sony phones are late distributing for example the xperia x series will be available in June and this is too late and at that time many other smartphone will have come. if the new xperia x series were available 5 months earlier it would have worth buying them but know yet s7 is dominant and has more features than the x performance and s7 has 4 gb of ram but the xperformance has 3gb. It's a shame for sony !!!!!!

Me too.
I am crazy of Sony devices but this ratio made me not to buy it.In hardwares also sony is dominant so Samsung HTC apple etc.
sony new xperia x performance screen to body ratio is about 66 percent and this isn't really acceptable.
I just love to buy sony but I can't convince myself that this isn't important
know I own GS3 but I wanna upgrade and wanna face something different (not Samsung).

4.tyrionTheWise (unregistered)

PA, I want to ask a question: What exactly is your battery test based on?

I suspect it's pretty heavily CPU bound. Since there is only one component of S7 that's less efficient than S6: SoC. But if it is, in the same time, the 820 will complete more work in the same time compared to the 7420, as it's faster. So the number of instructions completed will be a better gauge of battery than the time it lasts.

For an example, take the case of geekbench battery test. It measures battery life in CPU bound scenario. Now, it outputs 2 scores: one is the time it lasts and other is the amount of work it does in the time.

Don't you mean Exynos 8890?...and having looked around people who claimed to have less than satisfactory battery life almost always had a carrier model (Verizon) or an 820 model..I have an Exynos S7 edge btw

It's been 3 days and 2 charge cycles.I've averaged about 7 hours of SOT. It's the best battery life I've ever had on a phone.
I'm not a benchmark junkie and performance has been great. the only time there was a slowdown or heating was when I was transferring all my files from my G3. I use the game launcher for game play and I use the battery saving setting a d even then there is much less battery drain than any other device I've used for the exact same games (Alto, Candy Crush and Spiderman Unlimited to name a few) and zero lag.

11.tyrionTheWise (unregistered)

7 hours seem a little low. I average around 5.5 on my S6. S6 edge should easily go 8-9 hours. But yeah, your battery life will improve in a few days as you won't install apps and so on.

I suggest you to do a few things:
1. Go to wifi>more>always allow scanning and set it to 'Scan only when Wifi is on'. This will not allow google to track you, and will also save unnecessary battery drain.

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